When the Bough Breaks: An Alex Delaware Novel, Book 1

Dr. Morton Handler practiced a strange brand of psychiatry. Among his specialties were fraud, extortion, and sexual manipulation. Handler paid for his sins when he was brutally murdered in his luxurious Pacific Palisades apartment. The police have no leads, but they do have one possible witness: seven-year-old Melody Quinn.

A Damned Serious Business

Edwin Coker, nicknamed 'Boot', is a case officer at MI6. When a hacker falls into his hands and reveals details of a secret meeting, Boot conceives a plan to strike back - with a bomb that will seriously damage the Russian operation. Boot turns to Merc, an ex-soldier fighting in Iraq and a gun-for-hire, to deliver the explosives into Russia and bring the hacker back. But things do not go to plan, and his mission becomes near impossible. The scene is set for a classic story of pursuit, evasion and a battle for survival.

The Bone Collector

New York City is thrown into chaos by the assaults of the Bone Collector, a serial kidnapper and killer who gives the police a chance to save his victims from death by leaving obscure clues. The cops go to Lincoln Rhyme, an ex-NYPD forensics expert left paralysed after an accident on the job. Rhyme reluctantly postpones his ambitions towards suicide and puts together a forensic investigation team, enlisting as his eyes and ears young police officer Amelia Sachs.

The Neon Rain

Dave Robicheaux has been warned that he's on somebody's hit list, and now the homicide detective is trying to discover just who that is before he ends up dead. Meanwhile he has taken on the murder investigation of a young black girl found dead in the Bayou swamp. Robicheaux uncovers a web of corruption that leads him to a terrifying confrontation with the one horror he fears most of all.

The Fix: A Rick Fuller Thriller, Book 1

In the winter of 1996, on the orders of the British government, the SAS stole the contents of a safe belonging to the Provisional IRA. Rick Fuller headed that team. Days later Fuller's wife was brutally murdered. Convinced he was betrayed from within, Fuller begins a relentless search for her murderers. Ten years on, Fuller is a Manchester gangland enforcer, a lone and bitter figure.

Think of a Number

It begins with a letter... The letter contains a request - think of a number, any number - and a sealed envelope. Inside the envelope is that number... When Dave Gurney, retired NYPD homicide detective, is contacted by an old college acquaintance about some startling letters he’s been receiving, it is at first little more than a diverting but sinister puzzle. Until the acquaintance is brutally killed.Suddenly Gurney finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation that makes no sense.

Parting Shot

After a tragedy rocks the community of Promise Falls, Cal Weaver is asked to investigate the threats being made to the accused's family. He's heard all about it on the news: the young man who drank too much, stole a Porsche and killed a girl, and who claimed afterwards not to remember a single thing. The whole town is outraged that he got off lightly, but for reasons Cal can't explain he accepts the job. Then Cal finds himself caught up in a vicious revenge plot, chasing someone set on delivering retribution.

Before the Fall

The rich are different. But fate is blind. A private jet plunges into the sea. The only survivors are down-on-his-luck artist Scott Burroughs and JJ Bateman, the four-year-old son of a super-rich TV executive. For saving the boy, Scott is suddenly a hero. And then, as the official investigation is rapidly overtaken by a media frenzy, it seems he may also be a villain. Why was he on the plane in the first place, and why did it crash?

Eye for an Eye

Seventeen years ago, Damian Walker abducted five women because the voices in his head told him to. Now he has been declared sane and is about to be released back onto Manchester's streets with a new identity. But within hours, there is another attack similar to his previous ones. Walker has proof it's not him - but is he reliable, and, if so, who is trying to frame him?

Killing Floor: Jack Reacher, Book 1

Random House presents the audiobook edition of
Killing Floor by Lee Child, read by Jeff Harding. Killing Floor is the first book in the internationally popular Jack Reacher series. It presents Reacher for the first time, as the tough ex-military cop of no fixed abode: a righter of wrongs, the perfect action hero. Jack Reacher jumps off a bus and walks 14 miles down a country road into Margrave, Georgia. An arbitrary decision he's about to regret.

We Know

Nick Horrigan has finally put his traumatic past behind him...until a SWAT team smashes into his place in the middle of the night. He's told that a terrorist has seized control of a nuclear power plant and is threatening to blow it up... Unless he can talk to Nick. As Nick rockets toward the truth, peeling back layer after layer of lies and deception, only one thing is certain: the long-buried secret, tied to the traumas of his own past, threatens his life at every turn.

Past Crimes: Van Shaw, Book 1

Van Shaw was raised to be a thief, but at the age of 18 he abruptly abandoned the illicit life and joined the US Army, leaving behind Seattle and his grandfather who taught him the trade. But after 10 years of estrangement, Van's grandfather has suddenly asked him to come home. He does so only to find his grandfather shot in the head and bleeding out on the kitchen floor....

Life of Crime

Dragged up on a council estate, Jason Rampling was determined to change his lot. Jason's a chancer, shameless with his good looks and his gift for earning a few quid. Life is easy when the money rolls in. Melissa thought she'd struck gold marrying Jason. Being on his arm meant she was finally a someone. But there's no glamour in waiting for your husband to come home or waiting for a knock on the door.

The Late Show

A compelling thriller introducing a driven young detective trying to prove herself in the LAPD. Renée Ballard works the night shift in Hollywood, beginning many investigations but finishing none as each morning she turns her cases over to day shift detectives. A once up-and-coming detective, she's been given this beat as punishment after filing a sexual harassment complaint against a supervisor.

The Black Echo: Harry Bosch Series, Book 1

For LAPD homicide cop Harry Bosch - hero, maverick, nighthawk - the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal. The dead man, Billy Meadows, was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who fought side by side with him in a nightmare underground war that brought them to the depths of hell.

You're Next

‘I know you, don’t I?’ Five words - that’s all it takes to plunge Mike Wingate and his family into mortal danger. Mike doesn’t recognise the crippled stranger who approaches him at a party... but the stranger seems to know all about him. What has Mike done? Do they have the wrong man? Overnight, the threats become attacks, and Mike, his wife, and their young daughter learn they aren’t safe anywhere - especially not their own home. He doesn’t know who they are. He doesn’t know what they want.

The Watchman

A long time ago, Joe Pike asked for help. In return, he would, one day, be called upon to return the favour, no questions asked. That day has come. Joe Pike is asked to protect the life of Larkin Conner Barkley, a spoiled rich girl who happens to be a federal witness in a major case. But someone is leaking information about their whereabouts, and the killers are getting all too close. So Pike hatches a plan: disappear into the anonymous underbelly of Los Angeles, turn the tables and hunt down the hunters.

Every Dead Thing

Tormented and racked with guilt over the brutal slaying of his wife and daughter, Charlie Parker, ex-cop with the NYPD, agrees to track down a missing girl. It is a search that will lead him into an abyss of evil. At the same time, he is warned by an old black woman in Louisiana that "The Travelling Man" is about to strike again. Multiple strands converge with a horrific confrontation in which hunter and hunted are intimately connected by guilt.

Don't Tell

Desperate Mary Grace Winters knew the only way to save herself and her child from her abusive husband was to stage their deaths. Now all that remains of her former life is at the bottom of a lake. As Caroline Stewart, Mary Grace has almost forgotten the nightmare she left behind nine years ago. Slowly she has learned to believe that her new life, and new identity, is here to stay. Then her husband uncovers her hidden trail. Step by step he's closing in on her and everyone she loves.

Memory Man

Amos Decker is a former professional football player whose career was ended by a terrible hit. Now a police detective, Amos is still haunted by a side effect from the accident he can never forget. One night Decker comes home from a stakeout to find his wife, young daughter, and brother-in-law horrifically murdered. Obviously scarred and nearly broken, Decker has to use his skills as a detective and his unusual brain capacity to try to catch the monster who killed his family.

Split Second: King and Maxwell, Book 1

When something distracts Secret Agent Sean King for a split second, it costs him his career and presidential candidate Clyde Ritter his life. But what stole his attention? And why was Ritter shot? Eight years later Michelle Maxwell is on the fast track through the ranks of the Secret Service when her career is stopped short: presidential candidate John Bruno is abducted from a funeral home while under her protection. The similarity between the two cases drives Michelle to reopen investigations into the Ritter fiasco and join forces with attractive ex-agent King.

The Crucifix Killer

When the body of a young woman is discovered in a derelict cottage in the middle of Los Angeles National Forest, Homicide Detective Robert Hunter finds himself entering a horrific and recurring nightmare. Naked, strung from two wooden posts, the victim was sadistically tortured before meeting an excruciatingly painful death. All the skin has been ripped from her face - while she was still alive.

Broken Promise

The morning it all started, newspaper reporter David Harwood had plenty to worry about. A single parent with no job, forced to return with his young son to the small town of Promise Falls to live with his parents, the future wasn't looking too rosy. So when his mother asked him to look in on his cousin, Marla, who was still not quite right after losing her baby, it was almost a relief to put the disaster his own life had become to one side. The relief wouldn't last long.

Publisher's Summary

A sniper opens fire on a crowded Californian schoolyard but is killed before any children are harmed. When the sniper’s identity is revealed, a media frenzy erupts – why would they want to take innocent lives? Psychologist Alex Delaware is brought in to help the kids cope with the ordeal but is quickly drawn into exploring the motives of the would-be assassin. Alex soon finds himself on a bloody and twisted trail into the world of political extremism from which there may be no way back…

This review concerns only the narration. This may be a great book, but I simply cannot get past the narrator's technique. I really tried. I was just a little nervous at first with the narration (every sentence has the same stress: (da-da-da-da DA), but I thought I could get used to it for the sake of the story.Then, less than 2 minutes into the recording comes the voice of 'Milo.' A parody of 'hard-bitten cop.' Almost unbearably unconvincing. Okay, well, maybe he won't be a main character. Then comes the principal, Linda Overstreet, Ed.D. OMG! It was fascinating to try to figure out what kind of audio manipulation created this voice. and what, exactly, was supposed to be conveyed by her absurd breathlessness (sexy? overmedicated? just weird?). I knew there would be children's voices coming up, so I masochistically listened on and, yep, distractingly bad.It's hard to do voices. Really hard. But not impossible. Sorry this book wasn't matched up with a more skilled reader.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

PJPackwood

Las Vegas, NV, United States

18/10/12

Overall

Performance

Story

"Narrator"

I really did not care for the naration of this story. I did not like the verbal portrayal of Milo, and found it 'grated' on my nerves.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

P. Giorgio

Illinois

22/07/12

Overall

Performance

Story

"Should have been a short story"

The basic story was good... all the other "junk" thrown in was distracting, diluting and depleting to my patience. The narrator was horrendous, as was noted here by others. His pronounciations of some words were baffling. Pat Metheny (musician) pronounced Pat Methanee (as in methadone). There are several more, each painful and without logic.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Kelly Howard

Oregon

18/06/12

Overall

Performance

Story

"Good book, excruciatingly awful reading."

What did you like best about Time Bomb? What did you like least?

Another good one by Kellerman. It's been years since i read it in print, but this narrator is so criminally bad that it's difficult to fairly judge the merits of the book itself. Milo often sounds like a vary bad imitation of Michael Keaton's "Betelgeuse," & the voices of other characters vary wildly. The women are cringeworthy. The only character who sounded 1/2way decent (the rabbi) was a minor one. The reader's voice often sounds so strained I kept getting a vision of him with fold of skin being twisted in a pair of vice-grips. VERY unfortunate that 'Alexander Adams' (a.k.a. Grover Gardner) didn't do all the Alex Delaware books.

What didn???t you like about Jeff Harding???s performance?

Anything, everything. His voice, accents, performance, timing, and characterizations seemed middle school level at best. I will in the future avoid this reader like the plague.

4 of 6 people found this review helpful

Anonymous!

NEWNAN, GA, United States

26/04/12

Overall

Performance

Story

"Just an okay read..."

Would you try another book from Jonathan Kellerman and/or Jeff Harding?

I've read almost everything Jonathan Kellerman.

How could the performance have been better?

I prefer John Rubenstein as a narrator.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Steve Rehmann

Fort Dodge, IA USA

09/11/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"I Didn't Think It Would Ever End"

I really enjoy the Alex Delaware series. However, I don't think I will be able to listen to any more narrated by Jeff Harding. He was just terrible and his voice over for the female characters is beyond description. Honestly, I don't know what to say. By the time I'd gotten down to the last two hours I was listening simply to get it over with. The length of the book compounded the terrible narration and I reached a point where I had completely forgotten what the mystery was. If there was a tie-in to the sniping incident and the sniper I lost that someplace. As much as I'd like to continue the series I don't think I can with this narrator. Not a book I can recommend anyone purchase or use a credit on.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Jim Lockett

16/07/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Good book, but not his best."

I'm a Kellerman fan and enjoyed this book. it wasn't his best though. it just seemed like he got to a point and wanted to wrap it up quickly; the end was rather rushed. I wasn't thrilled with the narrator...maybe it was a regional thing, but he pronounced a lot of words much differently than I ever heard them. I'm from the area of the country where the action takes place and none of the characters would talk that way. it seems like he should figure out how to pronounce 'Pacoima' before attempting to read this book.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

A. Ortali

18/01/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Very odd pronunciation by reader was distracting."

I always enjoy listening to the Alex Delaware books, but Spira Gyra isn't speara geera. Many other weirdnesses. Ficus as feecus. I will think twice before buying a book read by Jeff Harding again.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Dee

ALPINE, CA, United States

07/01/13

Overall

Performance

Story

"Not Kellermans best work, but fair"

What did you like best about Time Bomb? What did you like least?

There were some irrational plot leaps and assumptions by the characters.

Would you be willing to try another book from Jonathan Kellerman? Why or why not?

Most of his stuff is very good 4-5 stars

Any additional comments?

Narrator was terrible. Mispronounced words, flat tone -not very professional

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Bull

Blacksburg, VA, USA

21/09/12

Overall

Performance

Story

"Jonathan Kellerman meets Marvel Comics"

80% of this book was classic Alex Delaware, but ...

When Alex gets himself in a life-threatening situation (NOT a spoiler, he always does), the situation and cast of characters get quite fantastical. I thought all of the bad guys had already been dealt with by Sergeant Fury, but no, they're still around.The fellows who save Alex don't wear masks like Batman and Robin, but they are otherwise from the same mold (as is their car).

Jeff Harding does a very good job. He may want to brush up on regional accents, especially southern. His Texas is located somewhere in Mississippi or Louisiana.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

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